


The Gas

by For the Record (SakoAkarui)



Series: Animorphs - Tom AU [6]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2018-06-08 12:38:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6854953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakoAkarui/pseuds/For%20the%20Record
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A recounting of our mission involving Esporish and gas. To help you better understand what we're really doing down here. --Cassie</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Planning

Cassie here. I thought I’d familiarize you with what we actually do here. Sort of an overview. As in, our actual fight, the missions, all of that. I mean, if we’re trying to tell you what’s really happening, then we should go straight to the grit, right? It pains me to do it, but it’s like pulling off a bandaid — just remember it’s for the better good and pull through.

So first, there are some differences in missions that I always kind of think of. These aren’t really categories, it’s just how I think.

Active missions: With active missions, we see something and go try and figure it out. They’re active because we’re making the moves without any kind of hints. We plan more on these, wait it out and think. They just normally aren’t as immediately threatening. Like Rachel one time, early on, tried to infiltrate Chapman’s house to see what was up. Chapman is our vice principal, but also a pretty influential controller. So we went out looking for them.

But then there’s reactive missions. These are things that come up that require immediate response. As soon as we know, we have to go in and shut it down. There’s no choice, and no time to really plan. It always gets dangerous, and messy, and the Yeerks normally expect us to move in so they are ready and waiting. Frankly, finding Ax was like this. The Yeerks were out searching too, and I’m so happy we found him first. He’s really a very sweet guy, and I can’t bear to think what the Yeerks would’ve done to him. These reactive missions are just awful, and stressful, and failure is plain unacceptable. It’s like ‘game over’, as Marco would probably say.

This is a reactive mission I’m going to tell you about.

We got the heads up from Erek. Which was good because we would’ve been dead in the water if the news had come a week later. See, the Yeerks really want to find us. They assume we’re Andalites, so we must be out in the woods somewhere. But then, that’s a huge area, right? So how to find the Andalites?

Naturally, track them.

They were planning this trap that we had been about to fall into. Ax had been digging around the internet, which apparently is what he does a lot. There was this company, Esporish, that was giving an ordinate amount of money to the Sharing. It also was gaining funds through some messed up banking schemes, but Ax says that that’s commoner than we probably want to know. I believe him.

So we felt pretty sure Esporish was a Yeerk run thing. And we were planning to run into it, check out what was there, except the Chee beat us to it. The Chee, they’re this group that has infiltrated the Yeerks. They’re actually androids, from this sweet, loving race that got horribly annihilated in an intergalactic genocide. The Chee are all that’s left, and they’ve taken up camp on Earth. And sometimes, they find out what the Yeerks are up to and tip us off. Erek, the Chee we talk with the most, accosted me and Rachel in the mall about the new Yeerk plan. And this was a big one.

Tagging to track is not the easiest thing. On earth, if you want to track an animal, you have to catch it and physically attach something to its body. There’s no hiding it. In movies, and probably in real life, I guess, you could leave a phone with GPS tracker in a car or someone’s bag. But it’s still not on the person itself, which made it useless against us. We morph. We change. We carried nothing to leave a tracker on. And until then, the Yeerks had only Taxxon hounds to chase us. (Apparently, great sense of smell on those, and relentless when trained to track blood.) The Taxxons couldn’t chase a trail of blood that ends and becomes a bird, though. All useless. So what did they do?

Gas.

They’d been developing a gas that would be ingested, then integrated into the body. The hope was that even through morphs, the gas would remain in the lungs. Some tiny speck of whatever would then be trackable by Yeerk sensors, and then we’d be toast. They’d see us go to our homes, and then it’d all be over - for us and our families. So emergency meeting.

“I do not want to get gassed,” Marco said. “My body is a finely tuned microchip. Any little thing can compromise it and shut the entire system down.”

“No one is going to get gassed,” Tom said. “We have to destroy this compound. If even a single one of us gets caught…”

“We’re toast,” Rachel said. “So let’s go in and destroy the gas. It’s gotta be destroyable right? Everything burns eventually.”

“Everyone, I give you the girl on fire,” Marco retorted. Rachel rolled her eyes.

“I’m only saying we can’t let them use it. If they can’t have it, and we don’t want it, it’s got to go.”

“They’d be able to make more,” I said. “They created it once, they have to have the ability to make it again.”

<Unless the components are particularly rare,> Ax said. He looked uncomfortable, probably because Tom had forced him to come to the barn for the meeting. Tobias had look out covered, and my parents were gone, so he was perfectly fine. Still, he was jumpy. <Why has this only come into creation now? Such a discovery would be powerful against any Andalite force.>

“It wouldn’t just be game over Earth,” Tom said. “That’d change the entire game, no matter how many worlds the Andalites and Yeerks are fighting on. Always knowing where your enemy is?”

“So, General Tom, on behalf of the entire warfront, humans and Andalites alike, with everything under your cunning control, what on our beautiful green earth do we plan to do about it?” Marco asked. Tom glared at him.

“Will you stop calling me General?”

“Of course, Prince Tom.”

<Prince Tom, will you give permission to hear a suggestion?>

“Ax, you don’t need to ask permission, and I could really stop hearing the word prince ever again. Ever.”

<Of course, Prince Tom.> Tom began rubbing at his temples. Marco has a way of grating on everyone’s nerves, and Ax has a way of,… well, creating utter exasperation.

<If they hope to use the tracking devices within the gas on morph capable individuals, who will they have tested it on?>

“Oh…” Rachel said with a grin. “Visser Three’d be the only choice, and I can’t imagine him volunteering.”

“They don’t know if it’ll work,” I said. “If we can show it doesn’t work, they’ll drop the project.”

“That sounds like a plan,” Tom said. “That is a good plan. So, we have to do two things then. One, we have to somehow set up the gas to not work, and two, we need to let them use it.”

“Woah woah woah, what happened to not getting gassed?” Marco asked. “What if this stuff is actually lethal?”

<It is unlikely they will have a gas lethal to Andalites and earth creatures that would not also be lethal to their controllers,> Ax said. <The Yeerks have not used biochemical warfare because they are not advanced enough to use it effectively. In fact, I am surprised to hear of this project at all. The only technology they use in this realm is the gleet bio-filter which, like all others, they stole.>

“Marco, if they don’t test it and see it fail, they’ll keep at it,” Rachel said. “Stop being a wuss.”

“We need to know more about it if we want to sabotage it,” I said. “Erek said they couldn’t get any more information than they already had. The facility is closed off. Only an occasional food truck goes in for supplies, always from the Esporish warehouse itself.”

“So we go with the truck, then,” Tom said with a shrug. “Find its schedule and sneak on board.”

“Erek said the next truck was going in on Friday.” It was a Wednesday afternoon.

“Oh, man,” Marco said. “I had big plans for this Friday.”

“What kind of plans would _you_ have on a Friday night?” Rachel said. Marco shrugged.

“Friday Night Magic, clearly.”

<I’ve read that magic was a human fantasy element. Do you put on glasses and wave a wand around, pretending to change the world through non-physical means?> Ax asked.

<I’ll keep an eye on the place, see if I notice anything,> Tobias interrupted. <If security is that tight, there’s bound to be more than just an electric fence up.>

“Yeah, good. You and Ax check out the place tomorrow, plan from there. Plan will go once school’s done Friday. The earlier we can set up shop, the better.” Tom looked at each of us in turn. “Well, anything else that’s not completely off topic?”

“Will we get any special, mission critical morphs?” Marco asked. “Those are my favorites. Especially the ones we don’t get to test out, and then our minds get hijacked by animal instincts.”

“I think flies and cockroaches will be fine. Or some tooth and claw if it comes to it,” Tom said. “Okay, Tobias? Keep us updated if anything goes weird. Everyone else? We’ll meet over Esporish after school.”

“Worst. Weekend. Ever,” Marco said.


	2. Infilitration

<Gleet Bio-filter,> Tobias confirmed. That’s a field the Yeerks use. It’s programmed to only let in certain organic lifeforms. Fries the rest. Our morphs are generally not included in the list. <Let’s in humans, since the driver was fine. Other than that…>

<Gee, that’s just swell. So, what, we just walk into a secure Yeerk facility? Anyone got some Girl Scout cookies to sell?>

<Marco, please,> Rachel said. <It’s not even the season for Girl Scout cookies.>

<Is it so bad that I’m a little bitter?> Marco asked. <Why’d they have to be seasonal anyway?>

We were a flock of assorted birds of prey, which ought to of looked suspicious. We kept pretty far apart though. Within thought-speech range, of course.

<There’s the warehouse,> Tom said, ignoring Rachel and Marco. <We have to figure out which truck is the right one, and get inside.>

<What about the bio-filter?> I asked.

<It let’s humans through, right?> Tom replied. <Closed truck, we just go to human until we pass the barrier, then get small. Tobias, can give us the aerial information.>

<Air control. My speciality, Tom.>

<Okay. So now we just need to… find and get into the truck.> The warehouse door was shut, so we didn’t know how many trucks there might be in there.

<I’m loving this plan already,> Marco said. <Stuck before we start.>

<A window!> I cried. <There’s a window open just on the other side. Looks like a small office inside.>

<You could land over there and morph behind the dumpster,> Tobias said. <Not exactly close but…>

<It’s what we’ve got. Okay. We’ve got a way inside.> He was already dropping down behind the building. We went down one by one, hoping there wasn’t anyone at the facility watching the trail of birds hone in. Soon we were four kids and one Andalite hunched behind a dumpster and piles of trash.

“I’m not watching this,” Marco said, turning away as he began to morph into a fly. Ax had already started morphing. I can’t blame Marco. Morphing is disturbing to watch. But the fly, once you’re there, is awesome. Even terrified and jumpy trying to sneak into a secure warehouse it was a good morph. After we’d morphed Tobias guided us towards the window, but once inside we were on our own.

The door to the hall was open, so we went in and hung a right towards the large warehouse docks. Or whatever they’re called. We knew we were looking for a truck.

<So… how do we know which truck we need?> Marco asked. <I mean, I can get a little conversation through my bristled body, but without any clues I think we’re done for.> All of a sudden, everything got a lot brighter.

<Well, the good news is they opened the big doors,> Tobias said.

<Bad news?> Tom asked.

<Probably heading out basically… now.>

<Can you see us?> Tom asked. <Five flies all grouped together?>

<I could if I had a clue - oh no, weirdly, I think I found you. Can one of you do a little dance or something so I know it’s you? … Marco, if that’s the bunny hop, then you should be ashamed.>

<Just call me Fred Astaire,> Marco responded.

<Well we’re in luck because there’s only one little white truck in there. Just keep going the way you’re going.> Tobias guided us inside the truck. This was back before all that stuff with the Ellimist - that second stuff with the Ellimist - so Tobias was always a bit left out. Which he wasn’t because we would’ve failed so many missions without him overhead. We would never have found that truck without Tobias. He’s our eyes in the air. Like a guardian angel, that boy.

Once in the truck, we just went straight for the back and waited. And waited. Tobias was going to tell us when the truck was going to leave.

<They’ve closed the door,> he said.

<We know. It’s dark,> Rachel said.

<They’re just standing there talking. I think one of them is the driver, but I don’t know how much longer he’s gonna wait there.>

<Well, if the door’s closed anyway,> Tom said. <I’m going to demorph, see what we’re dealing with.>

<Great, I’m ready to get on with this,> Rachel said.

<You guys wait until the truck starts moving. I’m going first just to get our bearings.> I suspect he was going first so if there was a problem he’d have to deal with it. Even in a situation like that, stuck in a truck alone, he wanted to go first.

<Uh, okay, just so you know, fly up a bit before you demorph or you might get stuck…> Tom said. He must’ve only been part way through. I decided to fly up a bit anyway. I was stuck between the truck wall and something very stretchy and vaguely smooth. I went up until the stretchy side stopped and sat on top of it. Then there was a lurch.

<And you are on your way. Part one complete.>

I started to demorph, and I was happy to have Tom’s advice, especially considering the complete lack of light — we were blind. I was sitting on top of a flat of boxes which were wrapped in what seemed to be saran wrap. The clearance towards the back of the truck was a few inches at most if my hand flailing about and hitting the wall was anything to think of. I felt my way over the flat the other direction. When it ended, I carefully dropped down and ran into someone.

“Woah, careful,” Tom said. “I’m hoping this ride won’t be too bumpy.” I heard a soft clatter, like thick glass hitting metal.

<That was a very cramped space,> Ax said.

“Yeah, Marco felt right at home,” Rachel said from somewhere in the darkness. It was a little disturbing, talking with people I couldn’t see.

We hit a bump and I fell to the side, hitting something smooth and plastic.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Are we playing I spy?” Marco asked. “I’m really bad at that game. When I’m blind.”

“What is it, Cassie?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t know. It’s plastic or… It’s kind of round shaped, but flat on top.” I felt around the top edge, then slipped my hands lower. There was a lip, so I pulled up. It opened, and dim light from inside illuminated the truck. The others were around me, holding onto various crates and flats of boxes. But all of us were looking into the tub. It was filled with liquid, and…

<Yeerks!> Ax said with hatred.

“Gross,” Rachel said. “They’re such vile slugs. Ugh, I think I want to hurl.”

“From the Yeerks or motion sickness?” Marco asked. He had walked up next to me and was looking inside.

“Great, a mini Yeerk pool,” Tom said.

“No way,” said Marco. “It can’t be. If they could make miniature Yeerk pools, why wouldn’t controllers just have them in their homes. Tika tika tika, ah yes, honey, do you want the 071 or 072 model Yeerk pool from Kenmore? Amazon’s having a sale.”

<There is no kandrona attached to it,> Ax said. <It’s likely just a unit for transport, filled with a normal liquid.> He was right; it really looked like just a big plastic tub.

“So what do we do, then?” Rachel asked. I looked around at her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, there’s some Yeerks there and us here. I think the enemy notion is well understood.” I shook my head.

“They’re completely helpless.”

“So it’s better when they’re in a host?” Rachel asked. I didn’t have an answer for that.

We hit a heavy bump and the lid fell closed. We were trapped in darkness again.

“We’re supposed to be doing this quietly. In, out, not a trace, right?” Tom said from somewhere to my right.

“That was the plan, General,” Marco said.

“Then we leave the Yeerks. We squash them, the Yeerks will know something’s up.”

The ride continued to bump along. I fell into Marco before I found some good leverage around the tub.

<Uh, guys?> Tobias said.

“Answer him, Ax,” Tom said. He was the only one who could.

<Yes, Tobias? Are we close? Should I take on my human morph?>

<Well, you’re kind of close. Really close, actually. I was about to tell you to morph, but the guy is pulling over.>

“What does he mean pulling over?” Rachel asked. The truck stopped.

<He’s grabbing something from his bag but… I think he’s getting out.>

“Ask him if he’s coming back here,” Tom hissed.

“We need to morph back to flies,” Marco said. “Something he won’t notice.”

<Is he coming into the back of the truck?>

<I don’t know. He might, and if so I’d say morph but… you guys are right around the corner from the place.>

“What does that mean?” Tom asked. Marco groaned.

“We might not have time to morph back,” Marco said. “We’ll get fried as half flies.”

<Tobias, will I be unable to perform two morphs?> Ax asked

<He’s getting out, you guys better think fast.>

“Okay, flies and bail. We’ll get in another way,” Tom said, but I threw open the lid of the Yeerk tub. Tom’s face looked shocked, then triumphant. I thrust my hand in.

“We can get in if we -“

<No,> Ax said. <I will not morph a Yeerk.> Marco looked sick but he stuck his arm in too.

“Ugh, they are so slimy and gross. I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“Ax,” Tom said. “Morph the Yeerk. It’s the only way in, and we need to get in there.” He pulled Ax forward with him and they reached in together. I had already climbed up on the lid and begun the morph. It was vile. Mucus spread over and throughout my entire body. It felt like I ought to be choking on it, drowning in it, but I wasn’t. I felt my organs shrivel, my lungs collapsing under the mucus. The last thing I saw before my eyes went dark was Tom lifting and dropping a half Andalite-half Yeerk Ax into the pool.

And then darkness again.

<Guys?> Tobias asked. <What’s happening?>

<You do not want to know what is happening,> said Marco.

<I think I’m going to be sick, and I don’t even have the capability to throw up,> Rachel said.

<Tobias, what’s happening?> Tom asked.

<He opened up the back and is inside. Can you see him?>

<Uh, no. No we cannot see him.> Tom sounded shaky. I couldn’t blame him. The Yeerk was… weird. I couldn’t swim very well, it seemed. It was fine, but not exactly efficient. I did have an odd, sonar like capability. I could send out electrical waves, and figure out what was around me, to an extent. The Yeerk instincts were… well, quiet. I had to really sit back until it showed me a better way to “swim”. The instincts were happy to be around brothers and sisters. But something was missing…

<So… How are we getting past the death dome?> Rachel asked.

<If the Yeerks are in the tub, then they must be able to pass through,> I said. <So… we just let them carry us in.>

<And then demorph from this pool of Yeerks, surrounded by controllers?>

<It’s fine, we’ve got our way inside. They’ll have to unpack everything in here, so we should have time to demorph and go back to insects,> Tom said. He was trying to reassure us. Or trying to back me up. This had been my decision.

<Tobias, will you be able to see them unload the truck?> Tom asked.

<No, sorry Tom. Everything’s boarded up. Hate to say it, but I think you’re on your own for a bit.>

<Great,> Marco said. <Really excited for this.> We grew silent for a while. A long while. REALLY LONG. I suspect the others were trying not to think about the morph. I could tell there were other Yeerks around me. Not many, but enough. Some of them were my friends. Most were not.

Then all the water jolted and I tumbled over.

<Oh thank god I think they’re finally carrying us inside,> Marco said. I was happy too, though the Yeerk wasn’t even concerned. The sloshing water and movement meant little. It’s like the Yeerk was just waiting for something to come along, for just the right moment.

When the movement stopped and the water settled, Tom starting thinking of the next step in the plan.

<Okay. They’re probably out unloading the rest. Ax, can you demorph enough to open the lid just a bit and check?>

<Demorphing now, Prince Tom,> came Ax’s swift response. Immediately there was a disturbance in the water, something BIG moving. But that was all I could tell. Blind and deaf, the Yeerk was just helpless.

<There is no one here, Prince Tom. I am leaving the container and demorphing fully.>

<I am on board that train,> Rachel said. The water started to get very crowded very quickly. I got my arms soon enough to pull myself over the lid. The others were stepping out, breathing heavily - and drenched.

“Oh, I hope I squished some of those on my way out,” Rachel said.

“That was the worst,” Marco said. “All slime and blind and… “ Marco shuddered. Tom was pushing his wet hair back over his head. He closed the container and looked around. It was a small room. Outside we could hear the sounds of men moving crates.

“Okay. We’re looking for… computers, I guess. We need the details on what they’ve made. Which would be saved on their computers,” Tom said. He was glancing through the crack in the door. “Cockroaches?”

“Works for me,” Rachel said. I was a little tired but there wasn’t much to do about that.

<I never thought I’d be so happy to be a cockroach,> Marco said, already well into his morph. <The crinkle and hardening of my skin is just musical now.>

<Marco?> Rachel said. <Shut up.>


	3. Mission Part 1

<So. How you doing?> Marco asked in a singsong voice.

<Shut up, Marco.> The building was big enough that Tom wanted us to split up. Trying to stay in thought-speak distance, obviously, but still searching out. We needed to find out as much as we could. So Ax went with Rachel down the hall that seemed the most promising. Me and Marco went down the next, and Tom took the final direction alone. There was a small fuss over Tom going solo, mostly from me. I don’t know why he does it. Maybe he just thinks he’ll be fine, like he’s stronger because he’s older. Maybe he doesn’t want to protect us from whatever he runs into. Maybe he doesn’t want to watch us die. I really don’t know, but he makes these sorts of decisions a lot. You know, I wish he acted more like our friend than our protective big brother sometimes. I hope he knows that we’re all in this together, that we want to support and protect him as much as he does us. But I think he might flip out if I said anything. Maybe I’m just not used to this sibling thing he thinks he’s doing.

<What, no chit chat?> Marco asked. We had found a set of stairs up and were currently exploring a section of the building that had a lot of doors. Shimmying under the first door brought us to a small, and thankfully empty, office room. A computer sat at the desk in the corner.

<Score,> Marco said. He started to demorph, and I followed suit. I finished first and checked the door. It was locked and there was no window looking out. The only warning we’d have of an approach would be the sound of a key in the lock. I didn’t like that.

“Maybe I should stay outside as lookout,” I said.

“What, you don’t want to check out this data?” I rolled my eyes.

“Marco, you know you’re better at that stuff than I am. Just, you know, do whatever it is to hack in and we’ll see what’s happening.”

“Hack?” Marco said with a laugh. “You are confused. I use computers to play games. The only breaking of rules I do is breaking game mechanics. FYI? Portal? Brutally broken. I wouldn’t be able to hack into a computer. And I _definitely_ won’t understand whatever I find.”

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. Marco sat in the chair, and I leaned over his shoulder to look at the screen. There was the familiar start-up tone as Marco turned the computer on. He started looking around the desk while the computer loaded.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Password,” Marco said. “In the movies, the password is always hidden somewhere on the desk.”

“Um…” I said, looking at the screen.

“Trust me, Cassie. I know my movies. And this entire war is movie worthy. Movie _series_ worthy.”

“Marco?”

“What?”

“The desktop loaded on its own.” Marco looked up.

“They don’t have a password?” Marco asked. He sounded upset.

“I guess not.”

“Why don’t they have a password. Isn’t this top secret?”

“They do have pretty tight security getting in here,” I noted.

“But _password_ ,” Marco whined.

“Can we just get what we came for and not make a scene?” I asked. Marco gave me an insolent glare but began to work at the computer.

“Jake would’ve laughed.” I didn’t have anything to say to that. I tried to focus on the computer and not on what Jake was going through. Marco was opening files, but none of them seemed relevant. They were all just business related, not details on the gas itself. Then a spreadsheet came up.

“Bingo,” Marco said.

“These are the results for the initial tests,” I said.

“That’s what the title and columns suggest,” Marco said. “Hey, I have a question. Do you understand the details of this?” I shook my head. “I don’t either. I know it’s about the gas, but that’s it. So how is this useful.”

“Can’t we, um… put it on a disc or something?” I asked.

“What, like a jump drive? That might work.” Marco began digging through the drawers. “We’d have to carry it out of course. That’ll be fun. Hey look, jump drive.” He had one of those little sticks with a metal end on it.

“Ok, cool,” I said, standing up. “So we put everything on that and walk out with all these details, and then we give it to Ax to find some sort of solution.”

“I like this ‘give the problem to Ax’ idea,” Marco said. “I can do that.”

I was busy trying to figure out how to leave with that jump drive. We’d walked a long way, and going out on a truck wouldn’t work. A fly could not carry that weight. I unlocked the door and peeked out. There was a window at the end of the hall. I closed it again, feeling satisfied at the click of the lock.

“I’m just putting everything that looks non-business-y on here,” Marco said. “Except if I find something scandalous like porn. That goes in the trash. I really don’t want to see that. Waiting for true love, me. What are you doing?”

“There’s a window out there,” I said. “We might be able to take the drive out that way.”

“And I am giving _that_ problem to you,” Marco said. “You have my utmost loyalty and trust. Oh, sweet.”

“What?” I asked.

“Found out where they’re storing the gas. And, goodie, by where, I mean not here.”

“That’s good why?” I asked him.

“Well, easier to get to and destroy if it’s not here, right?” Marco said. “Actually, just breezing through things, trying to see what to put on the drive… There’s not much here. In this building. I mean, the data, yeah. But that’s it. Nothing’s stored here in amounts to matter. Do they have _another_ super secure location for us to get to for the gas?”

“I just want to handle one thing at a time,” I told Marco nervously. I thought I had heard something. The sharp turn of Marco’s head told me I wasn’t the only one who’d heard it.

“I’m going to peek out,” I said, unlocking the door.

“Don’t!” Marco hissed, but I’d already opened the door. There was someone outside, down the hall. Just a person. A controller. They hadn’t heard the door because they were talking into their radio.

“No one in the upper wing. Wherever Toopra went this doesn’t look like it. The rest is dead end offices. … No, I can check each office, I’m just telling you Toopra wouldn’t do this. … That’s not what I meant. … Unless the plan was to jump out the window I’m at a loss as to what to expect…”

I stepped away from the door and came close to whisper to Marco.

“There’s a guy out there.”

“Great. So we morph.” I shrugged.

“We have to carry that drive, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And we have to get out the window to carry it out,” I continued.

“This sounds like a plan,” Marco said.

“And then we need to get through the filter.”

“This sounds like a not fun plan,” Marco said.

“It’s not _that_ bad,” I said.

“Noooo, _you_ have a plan,” Marco moaned. Marco doesn’t like my plans too often.

“I do. I think. But I’m hoping the controller will move away first.”

“What’s he doing?” Marco asked. I shrugged.

“Talking into his radio about someone named ‘Toopra’.” I said. Marco frowned and started to click through the files on the screen.

“I think you should carry the jump… thing,” I told him. “We’ll probably need to get the drive to stick to you somehow in Yeerk morph —“

“This involves going out as _Yeerks_?” Marco asked. I just shrugged.

“The bio-filter.”

“And what about you?”

“I’ll morph to get you to the ground. A bat might be small enough to manage it. Then I find a place to change to Yeerk and go out the same way.” I let it go unsaid that I was a faster morpher. We all knew it. It’s why Marco had to carry the data.

“I can only imagine what Tom will say,” Marco said, removing the data from the computer.

Tom did not like the plan. But since the plan was already in motion by the time we could tell him, there wasn’t much to say on it at the time.


	4. Planning Part 2

Luckily our controller patroller needed to use the bathroom. By the time Marco had morphed and I had attached the jump drive to his back with a clip (by the way EW), the controller had stepped out. I went bat and was clear to fly Marco out the open window. I dropped us in a bush, and Marco started his slow crawl out while I rapid morphed to Yeerk. Tobias guided us. As far as I know, the others made it out similarly. I mean, how else to get out? A Yeerk could hide in the grass. Yeah, we were slow, but with Tobias watching we could get to a secure spot within two hours.

And yeah… it really _did_ take a long time. You don’t want those details.

We walked away with Marco’s jump drive, plus some information Ax had memorized from hard copies he and Rachel had discovered. Tom had only been around for some water cooler gossip, to his frustration. It felt like a let down, since nothing had happened, but actually it was quite good. We gathered information. That had been the plan. And no blood spilt! An astounding success, I’d say.

“So what does it say?” Marco asked. It was the next day, Saturday morning. We were out in the meadow by Ax’s computer. I was sitting on this log, Marco on my left, Rachel on my right. Tom was pacing. Tobias had a grip on a tree branch overhead. Ax was standing at what I now presume to be attention by his computer.

<This is merely a list of various test dates and results,> Ax said. <A major problem has been lethality. Tests have mostly been conducted on Taxxons. While useful, due to their assent, the Taxxon hosts are difficult to control and of limited physical advantage, so the loss of hosts due to experimentation was deemed… acceptable. But they seem to have narrowed on a formula that is promising. I believe they will be ready to dispense this concoction in the field within a few days.>

“ _Days?_ ” Rachel asked. “They want to test _immediately?_ ”

“That’s fine,” Tom said. “It was always our plan to have them test and see it fail.”

“But how to do that?” I asked. Tom shrugged.

“Your guess is better than mine. All I got from this trip is the knowledge that this guy Toopra is a huge pain.”

“Toopra?” I asked.

“Yeah. The controllers I heard did not like him. Does that mean something to you?” Tom asked. So I told them about the controller with the radio.

“Sounds like they had a mole to me,” Marco said.

“Working for who?” Rachel asked. She looked up from her phone for the first time in twenty minutes. Meetings like this bore her, I think. “I mean, he’s not with us. And I think Erek wouldn’t have sent us in if he had this Toopra guy on his side.”

“My curiosity is peeked,” Marco said. Tom was nodding quickly now, the way he does when things start coming together.

“Cool,” I said. “So Marco can go talk to Erek about this Toopra—” Marco cut me off with a wave of his hand.

“Woah, why am I on Erek duty?” Marco asked.

“I just mean,” I continued, “the controller by us mentioned a Toopra, and Tom overheard it, so it sounds worth looking into…”

“And I’m Mr. Investigation?” Marco asked. And, like, he kind of is, but I guess he doesn’t want us to think about him that way, or something. “Cassie, you’re the one that overheard the controller and brought this all up.”

“No, I just… you’re close with Erek,” I replied. Marco laughed.

“Not really. I just knew him first.” He looked at me, the way he does when he’s trying to figure out a puzzle. “If you want me to ask him, fine. But to be fair, you _could_ handle it.”

“Just stop being a tool, Marco,” Rachel said.

“Do I need to break this up?” Tom asked. He was rubbing his temples. He probably had a headache, and we weren’t helping. “Marco, if you could head up this Toopra thing, it’d be helpful. Sooner rather than later.”

“I can swing by on my way home,” Marco said with a shrug.

<None of this solves our problem,> Tobias chimed in. <What about the gas?>

<I can continue to look at the data,> Ax said. <But I worry I will not be able to understand the details. Biology, particularly xeno-biology, was never my speciality.>

“Why not have Cassie look?” Marco said, jabbing his thumb in my direction. “She’s animal girl.” I gaped at him.

“That doesn’t mean I understand _biology_. And is this even biology?”

<Strictly speaking, this is a biochemical compound,> Ax said. <But if it is too advanced for me, I do not believe your human education would prove adequate in deciphering it.>

<Oh, we’re _idiots_ ,> Tobias said. I looked up at him in surprise, because it didn’t sound like a response to Ax’s comment. It sounded like he had just realized something that should’ve been blatantly obvious from the beginning. <We’re complete utter morons.>

“Why this time?” Tom asked with a smile.

<Erek,> Tobias said. <Erek is sufficiently advanced to understand this. He’d have gotten it if he could’ve gotten in the facility. Give him the information, and then we can talk about stopping it.>

“Again, I _like_ this plan of giving the problem to somebody else,” Marco said. Tom took out his phone and frowned.

“No service,” he said.

“Tell me about it,” Marco said. “I wanted to find pokémon out here.”

“Do you play that stupid game?” Rachel asked.

“Well, we can’t all be pinteresting,” he shot back.

“Who were you trying to call?” I asked, hoping to get us on track. Marco and Rachel seemed more on edge than normal.

“Erek. We should go see him immediately, if possible. If we only have days…”

“Check Steam,” Marco said to Ax, who nodded and turned to his computer.

“Steam?” Tom asked.

“Gaming thing. I’ve caught him online around this time. I think he gets up early to play the Koreans. Erek’s a beast on DOTA.”

<I believe he prefers intelligence-based heroes,> Ax responded.

“I meant his _talent_ ,” Marco clarified. “He’s really good.”

<Ah. I was confused.>

“Wow,” Rachel said. “I didn’t realize how lame we were until just this moment.”

<He is 12 earth minutes into a game currently. Should I message him requesting to meet?>

“Who’s he playing as?” Marco asked just as Tom said, “Yes.”

<… I will message him,> Ax said. <… and he is playing as Techies, incidentally.>

Erek responded quickly, saying he could meet later in the afternoon. We agreed, and then we split. Rachel had flown in, and quickly flew out, phone clenched in her talons. Marco shook his head at that, but he wasn’t arguing any more. Tom, me, and Marco gave a goodbye to Tobias and Ax for the time being and walked back to my farm. Tom had given Marco a lift, and I had plenty on my plate to fill the short time I had until I had to get to the meeting with Erek. Tom used our bathroom before the drive, and Marco asked me something before he left.

“Hey, do you remember I mentioned that game I thought you’d like?”

“Yeah,” I said. “But I told you I don’t really like video games at all.”

“ _Technically,_ it’s a computer game,” Marco said, as if that made a huge difference. “And you might actually not, but I’m curious how you’d play it. At the very least, I think it’d introduce you to a different kind of game you might actually find interesting.” I shrugged.

“I guess?” He just nodded.

“I could swing by tomorrow, or something,” he said.

“Sure,” I replied. “If you want to.”

And then Tom came back, and they left.

  


*****

  


“Well,” Erek said, looking over what we had, “it isn’t much to go on.”

“We realize that,” Tom said. “The main point is what can we get from this?”

“I’m not sure,” Erek said. “It looks like they’ve had pretty promising results. It will definitely be a problem for you, given my knowledge to date on the morphing process.”

“I thought you were all super advanced,” Rachel said. Erek chuckled.

“Tell me, Rachel,” Erek said lightly, “what do you know of sine, cosine, and tangent?”

“Nothing,” she said without pause. I was also lost.

“Well, you’ll learn it soon,” Erek replied. “There’s a difference between being able to understand something and being exposed to it. The Pemalites didn’t create the morphing technology, so I have no knowledge of it. Though if we collaborated…” Ax went a little stiff at that.

<I will do as my Prince requires,> Ax replied formally. Tom sighed.

“Tell Erek what you know,” Tom said. “What will help us stop this. We can’t let this gas leave Earth.” Ax nodded, something I’m not sure whether he picked up here or not. The two talked, and I listened. It was very interesting. For the most part, it seems that excreting anything by morphing is actually very difficult. Ax mentioned this thing in case a morph ‘disagrees’ with the morpher which sounded weird, but it wasn’t voluntary either. But they mentioned something that did interest me.

“The gas chemical can be metabolized?” I asked. Erek turned to me.

“It’s a chemical,” he said. “It is not inert and would be prone to a chemical reaction. I don’t know how to induce one to make it inert, though.”

“That means, what, an animal would have to convert it. To blood? Like breathing, where we take in oxygen and make, um…”

“Carbon dioxide,” Erek finished for me. “And oxygen is deposited into the blood stream, yes.”

“See?” Marco whispered to Tom. “ _Biology_.”

“It could work,” Erek said. “But I don’t know any animal on earth that respires in a way to convert this chemical basis. Photosynthesis doesn’t work. I’ve been running through others, but to no avail yet.”

“I’d been thinking,” I said. “Well, I was just thinking if we go small enough, maybe it would disappear. That the animal would naturally push it out.” Ax shook his head.

<That would not solve the problem,> he said. <The gas would remain no matter how small we become.>

“No, I realize,” I said, “but we’re saying it’s metabolized. If it were just gas, you said Erek, gas we’d breathe out. But it gets into the blood and the morphing is in the blood.”

“What are you thinking?” Erek said kindly. And I realize now, he was saying it a bit condescendingly. He had put his processors to the test and thought I couldn’t have thought of something he hadn’t.

“Well what of an animal with no blood?”

  


*****

  


This is a bit of an interlude, I suppose, but there is a bit of relevance to it. I don’t think Marco would’ve mentioned some of the stuff he did without this context. We had never really hung out before this all happened, because despite the fact that he was friends with Jake, and I kind of… well I talked with Jake a bit. But me and Marco didn’t interact much. It’s just he’d mentioned in the last meeting he wanted to show me this game, and even though I wasn’t into that sort of thing, I just kind of shrugged and said okay. So he texted me early Sunday, and I said sure even though I had homework, and then Marco was over at my place kicking up something on the computer. It’s actually really complicated, and he openly admitted that he never thought I’d _really_ like it, since I couldn’t win without being cruel at some point. (He’s wrong, by the way; I completely can win and have.) But anyway, I’d tried a third or so run through, failed, and started from scratch.

“I can’t _do_ that,” I told him. The game gave me the option to execute a man on trial, and I just refused. I hate capital punishment.

“I know. It’s why you won’t win,” he said. I thought he was mocking me, but something about his smile seemed odd.

“Why would you want me to play this game?” I asked. “It seems very mean.” He shrugged.

“It is. I think it’s why I like it so much now.” He pulled his chair closer. “We have so many tough decisions, decisions that will lead to game over if we guess wrong. And at least here, I get to try again.” Marco shrugged again.

“I knew you’d never _really_ like it,” he continued.

“Then why show me?” I asked. He laughed.

“Actually, there is a game I think you will like. I just wanted you to play this first.” He didn’t ask; he just put his hands to the mouse and keyboard and I pulled my hands back. He saved my game, closed it, and started downloading another. “This one is really all story. But it’s really… Well, it’s about women, I guess, and I thought you’d find it interesting. I normally wouldn’t have played this sort of game, but I liked Long Live the Queen, and maybe, with the war, my perspective changed…”

And that’s how I ended up sitting for a very long time with Marco in front of my computer. He was very patient, which I hadn’t anticipated. He let me read through this ‘interactive novel’, or whatever. But when my dad needed help in the barn, I told Marco. I said he could stay to help, thinking he’d refuse, but he stayed anyhow, which led to the two of us cleaning out some stalls that our wolves had recently vacated.

“Okay, why are you really here?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” Marco asked in return.

“Marco,” I said, dropping the pitchfork I’d been using on the spent hay. “You are not the sort to do menial labor, especially not when animal droppings are involved.”

“You could just say I got corrupted by Tom and I’m acting like some mature shit I’m not yet,” he fired back. I looked around wildly even though I had already known my dad was out of the barn.

“I’m serious. You know I don’t do video games, and you don’t help out with chores.” Marco shrugged.

“I just think it’s good to get to know each other,” he said. “Doing what we do, it builds rapport, yeah?”

“I don’t know anything about rapport,” I replied, “I just think it’s a little odd.”

“Maybe I just don’t want to be home alone, okay?” Marco said. “Do you really hate my company that much?”

And I didn’t have much to say to that except no, so we went back to work. I don’t think we exchanged a single word until the stalls were clean and Marco left.


	5. Bringing it Together

I took the bus again into and across town to get to Erek’s a couple days later. There was a ban on all morphing given the gas was testable at this point. Erek lives in the most basic, suburban, boring neighborhood I’ve ever walked through. It’s so odd to go to his place, worrying about morph-tracking gas and Hork-Bajir and all the horrific morphs the Visser has gathered, and just to see everything so common. But Erek has seen so much worse so I feel I don’t really have any place worrying like that whenever we go see him.

Erek, grinning, greeted us (just me, Ax, and Tom today, Rachel out at gymnastics practice and Marco with a much disapproved detention, and Tobias overhead just in case), and I thought the grin was promising. He took us back to his computer where he’d been collecting information onto that jump drive to give back to us. He admitted he’d never really looked into polyps in detail before, and they were actually very fascinating to him, which is a rarity at this point. I agreed, but after a minute or so Tom cut in. He’d apparently remembered this time about Toopra.

“Marco was going to come by,” Tom began, “but with doing this data junk we forgot. Does the name Toopra mean anything to you?”

“Toopra?” Erek asked, spinning in his chair. “Yes. Yes, Toopra means a great deal to me.”

“Who is he?” I asked.

“Toopra?” Erek laughed. “Think VP of operations. He was second on this project, and it was a big one. Then suddenly, the day he calls in with an ill host body, four cans of the gas go missing.”

“What?” I asked. Tom gave a low whistle and paced down the hall.

“He might not have done it,” Erek cautioned. “But he might as well have. It’s a gossip scandal. You heard about him?”

“I just knew a guard was looking for him,” I said.

“I heard some things,” Tom said. “He was in the facility the day we were.”

“He was?” Erek said, standing. “Are you sure?”

“Well, no,” Tom said. “I didn’t see him, at least as far as I know. But someone working there said they saw him in in the morning, and that he’d excused himself for an early lunch, which apparently was odd because they don’t really get lunches. Is that normal, not getting lunches?” Erek waved his hand.

“It’s common for Yeerks to downplay host needs. They regard it as being sympathetic to the host, which is ridiculous because it destroys productivity. But that’s beside the point,” Erek said, standing. “If Toopra went back with everything going on, then he must have been looking for something.”

“But there’s nothing there,” I said. “Marco told me the gas is all offsite.”

“If he has the cans he hardly needs more,” Erek replied. “There must be something else there.”

“It’s just data,” I said. “How can we find what we don’t know we’re looking for?”

<They appear to be keeping copious ‘hard’ copies, which is rare outside of Earth,> Ax chimed in. <Perhaps a security measure?>

“Probably,” Erek said. “But Toopra would’ve known what he needed. I’m sure he took it and got out. At this point, finding Toopra is the key.”

“Canyou do that?” Tom asked. Erek shook his head, and Tom threw his hands into the air.

“So back to square one.”

“Perhaps not,” Erek replied. “Based on Ax’s knowledge of the morphing technology, the polyp idea may work. Finding Toopra would be valuable, but in war one must often focus on the immediate threat. You cannot wait and see if the gas works in a scenario where you can’t pass through polyp form. You should test it yourself.”

“How couldwe possibly do that?” I asked. “We don’t have any of the gas to test it.” Erek just smiled and shrugged. Tom groaned.

“Best to study the gas and the morph yourself,” Erek said. “And choose a morph, besides. Most of these species don’t move, or at least not quickly. The ones that can move need water. On top of that, given that morphing is in the blood, I’m not sure it’ll allow you to morph something _without_ blood to morph back with.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Tom asked warily.

“They’re animals, yes, so I suspect the morph will go to the blood and you can use it. But once the blood is gone…”

“We could be stuck?” I asked. “Oh man, no one’s going to want to hear that.”

“You both discuss, I’m demanding the others to get their butts here after all, gymnastics and detention be damned.”

  


*****

  


“Wait, hold on, hold on,” Marco cut in, raising his hands. “I’m not hearing this right. _We’re_ stealing gas now?” Tom shrugged.

“It would be a good move. We could study the concoction ourselves, make sure everything works right,” Tom said, repeating Erek’s argument. Then he glanced to me. “We always fare better when we test these morphs out.”

“They’d heighten security after Toopra’s betrayal,” Marco said. “It sounds like a large risk. Why aren’t we focused on this Toopra guy?”

“And where do you expect to find Toopra?” Rachel countered. “At least getting gas is a _plan_.”

<What about the host?> Tobias asked. We all looked up to him where he was perched on top of one of Erek’s bookcases.

“What about the host?” Erek asked.

<Did the host disappear?>

“Yes,” Erek responded, sounding bored. “The host has disappeared, and the Yeerks have not found him. We have been tracking their attempts.”

<Did they include credit cards?> Tobias asked. Erek frowned, then grinned.

“No, they have not. They often overlook hosts’ needs and means.”

<He has to be buying things. Food, cheap motel. Host needs. Probably thinks he can get away with it.>

“Correct,” Erek said with a smile. “They have not put their police hosts on the case since they treat them more as babysitters as opposed to true assets, especially with such a high security situation. Perhaps we could track the credit.”

“He could change cards,” Rachel said. “If he has good credit getting a new card is easy.”

“We can track the social security,” Erek replied. “It’s a good trail idea. I’m surprised we hadn’t thought of it.”

<Too invested in the alien part?> Tobias asked.

“Perhaps I still have not gone truly native,” Erek replied. “I’ll see what I can do.” Tom sighed.

“And we’ll get to looking into the gas. Marco, you kept the gas location on the drive?”

“Yeah,” Marco said to Tom. “I copied it over.”

“Let’s find out how to get a canister of tracking gas out of a top security Yeerk facility.”

“And how to even test how they _track_ it,” Marco replied. Tom groaned.

“I guess we should expect a long week,” I sighed. Marco scoffed.

“At least you didn’t run out on detention. That’s my Saturday morning gone now on top of it all.”


	6. Toopra

The first thing we did was test the morph. Ax was surprised and fascinated that it worked, and so was I.I mean, there are many animals on earth that don’t resemble humans. Some animals don’t even require _oxygen_. But this seemed very disturbing to Ax, since he asserted clearly that morphing was in the blood stream. I should have been stuck in morph, just as Erek had suggested.

So you know. I’m entirely reassured Ax let me try.

The fact is there are quite a large number of animals without blood. Jellyfish, sea anemones, I had a lot of choices. But I ended up going with coral, partially because it was in the ‘touch pool’ and partially because I was really curious. Would I be a single polyp? Would a be a whole mess of them? What would the morphing technology even do?

I turned out to be just the one polyp. One very boring polyp, with not much brain — actually no brain whatsoever — to keep me entertained. The thing about polyps, they’re more like a tube or balloon then anything else. Coral is just a collection of polyps, like the sea anemones in Finding Nemo, all shoved together and excreting hard calcium deposits. Snails do something similar with their shells, I think. Or at least my searches on wikipedia brought up all of this information. My parents don’t really specialize in the water kingdom, least of all things in the touch pool. But I could get the morph — there’s a tingly sensation when a morph is absorbed, so I knew it was working — and thanks to my idiocy I also discovered the coral polyp can survive just fine for a bit without water. I didn’t enjoy the experience as it was something like slowly suffocating, but it had a very distant sensation since on top of no blood, corals also have no brains to register pain in. It was this weird, all over feeling of deprivation, but at the same time, I thought I’d felt it before. Like in another morph, but I couldn’t put my finger on which one.

I’m really shocked this morph worked, actually.

But the thing was, testing the morph was straight forward: it worked or it didn’t. But getting the gas, or even getting Toopra, we were stumped. I couldn’t even guess how Toopra had gotten gas out, let alone how we would. So it was fortunate that Erek got a hit on Toopra with the social security. Apparently his ID was scanned somewhere for legitimacy and it came up; I couldn’t blame Toopra for wanting a drink in his situation. So we changed tactics to talk with Toopra, something Marco was much happier with.

<The enemy of my enemy is my friend,> Marco said. <It’s a saying for a reason.>

<Yes, I get it,> I told Marco again. <This is more pleasant than breaking into that facility.> Me and Marco were circling high above Toopra’s hideout. It wasn’t much of a hideout, given it was a small cabin in the woods. At least he’d been smart enough to pay for the cabin with cash. Should’ve thought of the car, though. Rachel was in the trees with Tom, ready to be cavalier. Tobias was up top with us. Ax had already flown in tight to make first contact — best to have a real Andalite talk instead of risking giving ourselves away. We were waiting for Ax to get into position, close enough to walk out if need be. Just to establish trust, and we had the area watched. Once Ax was secure behind a large bush, he reached out his thought speech to Toopra, including all of us.

<Toopra, do not be afraid.>

…

<Prince Tom, he has threatened me most grievously.>

<Just tell him we have a lot more we can do together than apart. He left for a reason,> replied Tom. He was prepped in wolf form; battle ready but not so inconspicuous.

<We only want to bargain. We are worth more together than apart.>

…

<He asks what we can do.>

<Protection,> Tom said.

<Uh…> Tobias responded. <How?>

<The Chee,> Tom said. <They’ll help us. Tell him we have found a way to hide him from the Yeerks for good. We’re hiding, after all.> Ax relayed the message, then a pause.

<We would protect you in exchange for information on the gas,> Ax continued finally. <It is our understanding that you have procured some for yourself. … We do not think it will work, but we would like to prove so. … You do not know the technology; we do. … Morphing can… Yes, we know… We know that as well… Yes. … No. … Possibly, but we are not… Prince Tom, he seems to know I am not in command… He has demanded to address my Prince directly.>

<Is there something lower than a Prince who could address you?> Tom asked.

<A Warrior could,> Ax replied. <I am but an _aristh._ Toopra, however, may not be satisfied with such a level. He seems to think I am a Warrior myself. >

<Okay, fine. Tell me a generic Andalite name,> Tom responded quickly.

<What?> Ax asked.

<A name,> Tom repeated. <I need a fake name in case he asks, so what can I put together that would sound like a real Andalite name.>

<Uh…> Ax hesitated. <Er… Th- Thallisth…. Thallisth Sss- Sirinial…Hirranth. Thallisth Sirinial Hirranth is a name you can use.>

<Yeerk Toopra,> Tom said. He sounded louder in my head. Forceful, too. <I am Prince Thallins Sirinial Hirranth. Do not give my Warrior such difficulties. We have much to gain from each other if we cooperate.>

<… Prince Tom, he says you should have come yourself from the start. And he wants nothing to do with us, because…. Tom he is very vulgar. I do not wish to speak with this Yeerk scum any longer.>

<Tell him the Yeerks are close behind us. If he does not work with us, he will die.>

There was another long pause.

<He wants to speak with you directly, face-to-face,> Ax continued. <He wants to see who he is dealing with.>

< _That’s_ not going to happen, > Rachel scoffed.

<No, it has to,> Tom said. <Tell him I will meet in human morph.>

<Tom, you _can’t_ ,> I said. <If he sees you, Jake—>

<I know what I’m doing. Ax, relay the message, pick a location with him, a human _public_ location, and we bail. >

<You would like me to pick the location, Prince Tom?>

<Best way to ensure it’s not a clearly human choice,> Tom said. <The host won’t catch on.>

<Bill,> I said.

<What?> Tom responded.

<The host,> I continued. <His name is Bill.>

<Oh,> Tom said. <Right.>

  


*****

  


Ax negotiated the time for the next day at the visitor’s center — suggestion of Toopra, approved by Tom — off the highway. It was a good spot for us; the woods were near for cover and escape via morphing, so I wondered why Toopra would pick it. Perhaps he wanted us more at ease, to keep our guard down. Or perhaps he just didn’t know where else he was unlikely to be spotted by someone who knew Bill, his host. Regardless, we met the next day at the visitor’s center. I was inside with Tom and Rachel. Rachel and I would play typical kids looking at all the merchandise with zero intent to buy. Tom excused himself to the restroom before the appointed time, hefting his backpack on one shoulder. Tobias, Ax, and Marco were outside on cavalry. I felt uneasy about the whole situation, considering how badly things would go if Tom’s identity was revealed. He’d been very insistent, though, cutting us off at every objection.

And then Toopra walked in. Bill, his host, was a very average looking man. A bit tall, square-faced, neatly cut deep brown hair. He could’ve been someone’s father dropping by to pick a friend up from school, I thought. Maybe he was. Right now he just looked like a very nervous, very stern man. He went to a display of keychains and awkwardly fingered through the items. A few minutes passed and I wondered where Tom was when a man approached Toopra. Toopra looked up in shock.

“Colin,” he said. The other man smiled. My breath caught: the last thing any of us wanted was a Yeerk here. Toopra was whiter than snow.

“Was that the name of this human?” the new man asked.

“Oh,” Toopra replied shakily. “You think picking a friend of my host will shake me?”

“I only wanted to assure you we know your trail. You are not in a good position, Yeerk,” the man replied. _Tom_ replied, I knew now with anger. Tom, in a _human morph_ , Tom, walking around in someone’s else’s image, who didn’t even consult the group, and now Tom who was breaking our very first rule: do not talk to the enemy.

“Your sympathy is noted,” Toopra replied with a sneer. “You sent your inferior to bargain. So let’s bargain. You want the gas? Well fine, but what are you giving back? I hardly have an ample supply.”

“You’ve stolen four canisters,” Tom shot back. Toopra looked surprised. “We will require a fraction of that.”

“That still leaves, er, my takeaway. I’m not a charity.”

“What do you want?” Tom asked.

“A bug fighter,” Toopra replied instantly. “Get me a fighter, I’ll get you your gas.”

“Like we can do that,” Rachel muttered. She motioned me to follow her to a new stand covered in keychains. I tried not to stare at Toopra and Tom, but fortunately Toopra seemed very absorbed in the discussion.

“You want to get off planet?” Tom asked, incredulous.

“Let me worry about what I’ll do with the bug fighter,” Toopra said. “I don’t want a thing to do with you or your kind, and I don’t want a part of this war either. Get me the fighter, I’ll give you the gas, and then we can be done with the whole thing.”

“We could hide you better here on Earth,” Tom replied. “We have ways.” Toopra shook his head.

“I don’t care how well you could hide me. It’s a bug fighter or nothing.”

“Alright. You want a bug fighter. And you expect us to procure one with a snap of the fingers?”

“You want the gas so badly,” he said. Then he sighed heavily. “I know they land one for supplies bi-weekly. I can tell you the place. There are plenty of guards, but it’s a fighter for you.”

“I guess we have a deal then.”

  


*****

  


“Ax, you told me the morph should have never worked, correct?” It was after the mission. I had opted to accompany Ax all the way back to his “scoop”. I was still very interested in the morphing, and I was just so angry with Tom I had needed a distraction.

<Correct,> Ax replied. <The morph has no blood, and the _Escafil_ effect only works by DNA absorbed into the blood. I do not understand why it could work with an animal with no blood to retrieve the original DNA from. >

“But does that mean all aliens have blood?” I asked. “If even Earth has creatures without blood, I’d think a great number of alien species wouldn’t either.”

<That…> Ax said, looking sheepish. <I am not sure. I have to admit, I am no scholar. We are meant to be. The fiercest Warriors and sharpest Princes must be both scholar and fighter, but it was never my strength. Not like it was for my brother. So I cannot say very much on xenobiology, except I believe some patterns we see again and again across the universe, a trademark of life. I do remember as a child being told that blood was the source of life, that blood and water are the same. Blood is our river, and the very rain is a life river from the sky to the ground. There can be no life without water, and there can be found no life without blood. So I am not sure what to think of these bizarre creatures you have here.>

“So even Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons, and Yeerks, they all have blood, and respiratory systems like we do? They all breathe oxygen?” Ax nodded.

<There are species who do not breathe oxygen, but the Yeerks have not shown interest in them. None seem to serve their purposes, highest among them a species which could invade Andalite territory. Breathing oxygen would be necessary for this. As for blood, we’ve seen Hork-Bajir and Taxxon blood ourselves. I know little of Yeerk anatomy, except that they are capable of spreading themselves thin to envelope a host’s brain. Somehow from that they gain control. Beyond that and Kandrona, Yeerk anatomy is beyond me.>

“I wonder how that works,” I mused. I know nothing of neurology even now, but I can’t help but think it fascinating how a creature could control another creature’s brain. Just… _how?_ But I could tell that Ax was uncomfortable (he starts swinging his tail, like going through drills, when he wants to stop having a conversation) so I dropped it.

“Any good games going on that Stem thing?”

<Steam,> Ax corrected lightly, <and there are many. If you are interested, Marco is very familiar with the games. I mostly play DOTA and some strategy based games. There is a fun one with towers.> So I spent time watching Ax play games before heading home. It beat thinking about what Tom had done, or whatever we planned on doing next.


End file.
